Althusser and the theory of ideology

This paper is a critical discussion of Louis Althusser's text 'Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses'. It questions the pertinence of the problem of the reproduction of the relations of production. It challenges both parts of Althusser's answer to this problem. The first being the theory of ideological state apparatuses and the second the theory of the formation of individual subjects through the imaginary. The concept of representation is subjected to critical discussion.     

Maximizing shareholder value: a new ideology for corporate governance

The decade-long boom in the US stock market and the more recent boom in the US economy have fostered widespread belief in the economic benefits of the maximization of shareholder value as a principle of corporate governance. In this paper, we provide an historical analysis of the rise of shareholder value as a principle of corporate governance in the United States, tracing the transformation of US corporate strategy from an orientation towards retention of corporate earnings and reinvestment in corporate growth through the 1970s to one of downsizing of corporate labour forces and distribution of corporate earnings to shareholders over the past two decades. We then consider the recent performance of the US economy, and raise questions about the relation between the maximization of shareholder value and the sustainability of economic prosperity.     

论马克思意识形态批判理论的四个向度

马克思的意识形态批判理论主要存在四个向度，即哲学批判、政治经济学批判、资本主义政治法律思想批判以及文化批判。这四个向度是相互渗透、相互包含的。其中，对资产阶级政治经济学的批判是马克思意识形态批判理论的核心，哲学批判是马克思进行政治经济学批判的前提和基础。     

马克思主义中国化理论意识形态的贯通作用

在主流意识形态与主导意识形态之间的区别与联系分析中发现马克思主义中国化理论是贯通主导意识形态和主流意识形态之间的重要组成部分,是连接国家意识形态和社会意识形态的重要部件,是意识形态工作中必须牢牢抓紧和长期建设的重要阵地。我们必须清楚认识到马克思主义中国化理论在意识形态领域的地位,充分发挥马克思主义中国化理论的作用,统一全党全社会的思想,凝聚力量,画好新时代思想同心圆。     

The radical personality: Social psychological correlates of new left ideology

This paper describes and tests a model of radical personality based upon social psychological correlates of New Left ideology. Following methodological criticism of studies that portrayed radicals as psychologically liberated, a model of psychopolitical rebellion is described as an inverted form of authoritarian personality. This model was tested by administering projective psychological instruments to a large sample of American college students during 1971–73. As hypothesized, radicalism was associated with measures of power motivation, narcissim, self-assertive psychosocial orientation, lack of affiliative motivation, and perceptions of protest and militancy as sources of power. The developmental sources of rebellion are also examined, and the implications for studies of personality and politics are discussed.This study was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (GS35307A1) and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.     

Mandelafying the public service in South Africa: Towards a new theory

A surfeit of service delivery disapprovals in South Africa is a clear reflection of the failure of the Public Service of South from the local, provincial, and national government to effectively and efficiently deliver service to its citizenry. The rise in a dissatisfied citizenry stems from a precise social realization, which envisions the failure of the state to deliver services to the public in an impartial, responsible, translucent, and befitting manner. This has resulted in widespread service delivery protests, which has become the most famous form of response to poor service delivery by frustrated citizens. This article argues for the mandelafication of the South African public service against the background of a cocktail of factors ranging from corruption, lack of transparency and accountability, incompetence, and lack of commitment to work ethics personified by Mandela. The article further argues for the upholding of the dominant constructs in which this mandelafication is grounded in such as proper ethics, humanitarianism, transparency, accountability, empathy, and selflessness, which characterized Nelson Mandela.     

Domination,global harms,and the problem of silent citizenship: toward a republican theory of global justice

Many citizens across the globe suffer domination and injustice in silence. It is not a silence of apathy or approval, but is another sort of silent citizenship born of deep inequality. This article attempts to come to terms with the global scope of silent citizenship as a form of domination that has become increasingly common among the worst-off in society. I argue that identifying problems of silent citizenship requires us to give priority to injustice over justice in future efforts to promote global justice. To illustrate how this might be done, I broaden the scope of republican theories of nondomination to consider how they might be applied to silent citizenship from a global perspective.     

Animalism: a nascent ideology? Exploring the ideas of animal advocacy parties

ABSTRACT

In recent years political parties advocating animal rights and animal interests have sprang up in several countries and seem to constitute a new party family. At first sight, they appear to be single-issue parties, but a closer look at their party programmes suggests that they are developing a new ideology based on the core concept of compassion and adjacent concepts of equality, intrinsic value and interdependence.     

Economic voting theory: Testing new dimensions

Classical economic voting theory has received considerable empirical support. Voters reward the incumbent for good times, punish it for bad. But the success of this paradigm, which views the economy as strictly a valence issue, has crowded out testing of other theoretical dimensions. In particular, positional and patrimonial economic voting have hardly been examined. The former concerns the different preferences voters have on economic policy issues, such as progressive taxation. The latter concerns the place of voters in the economic structure itself, not merely as members of a social class but as actual property owners. Through analysis of a special battery of economic items, from a 2008 US presidential election survey, we demonstrate that the economy was important to voters in three ways: valence, position, and patrimony. Taken together, these dimensions go far as an explanation of vote choice, at least with respect to the short-term forces acting on this political behavior.     

Symbolic ideology in the American electorate

Ideological self-identification in the United States is well measured for the period 1970 to the present. Many survey measures are available and they are posed with considerable frequency and regularity. It is thus a relatively straightforward methodological exercise to combine them into a single measure of the American public's latent disposition to identify as liberal or conservative. What is problematic about this state of affairs is that the availability of these good measures occurs after a number of important changes in the American political context, changes that, we argue, have affected how Americans conceive of ideological terms and how scholars think about self-identification in the modern electorate. This paper seeks to measure and explain ideological self-identification in the time before modern survey research. We undertake an historical analysis of scattered pieces of public opinion data before 1970, assembling the pieces to build a time series of self-identification from 1937 to 2006. We then begin attempts at explaining the now observable, and often dramatic, changes in this series.     

Personnel Management: Politics, Administration, and a Passion for Anonymity

Personnel management is vitally important to the maintenance and preservation of the administrative state and its democratic institutions. This reaction critically examines the personnel recommendations made by Floyd W. Reeves and Paul T. David in their study Personnel Administration in the Federal Service. It questions the degree to which there is a coherent set of political and constitutional expectations marking the progress of personnel policy that might enable us to forecast the future, both theoretically and practically. The authors highlight how and why the field should pay greater attention to the political ends that our personnel theories serve.     

Between ideology and social representations: Four theses plus (a new) one on the relevance and the meaning of the political left and right

This study analyses the relevance and the meaning given by Italians to the political labels ‘left’ and ‘right’ between 1975 and 2006. Based on responses to the open‐ended question ‘What do you mean by “left/right” in politics?’, the study compares five alternative hypotheses on the meaning of the left‐right axis and show that, despite the alleged end of ideologies, the relevance of the axis has increased over time. A core of abstract meanings persists throughout the thirty‐year period considered. As the importance of abstract meanings has increased over time, reference to more concrete contents (such as ‘parties’ and ‘leaders’) has decreased. The findings thus support the hypothesis that the left‐right axis has the functional characteristics of social representations.     

Public enterprise in Algeria: Law as a bridge between ideology and reality

In 1971, the Algerian government promulgated the Charte de l'Organisation Socialiste des Entreprises. By means of this Charte it ostensibly sought to reform Algerian public enterprise law and to correct increasingly disruptive problems in public enterprise management. It also sought to reduce the widening gap between workers and the technocratic elite managing the state-controlled economy. The Charte and its subsequent implementing legislation have been criticized as being, at best, ambiguous; at worst, insincere. Moreover, implementation of la gestion socialiste, as the reform came to be known, was uneven and slow. This article discusses Algerian public enterprise law before and after the 1971 reform. It does so within the context of comparing the utility of applying a symbolic rather than an instrumental view of the role of law in development. On the basis of analysis of the Algerian experience, the article suggests that the symbolic view of law allows a much deeper understanding of the role of law in development, primarily because it allows, if not requires, consideration of the influence of economic, political and social factors on the role of law in developing countries.     

Science,enterprise and profit: ideology in the knowledge-driven economy

Key policy documents relating to the 'knowledge-driven economy' show that policy makers, university heads and other interested academics have come to view the task of creating science-based industries through the lens of enterprise ideology.Proceeding on the assumption that the scientific fundamentals are already in place, the belief is that industrial applications can be achieved by infusions of enterprise. Such a framing is attractive to those unwilling or unable to engage with the complexities of scientific research or new product development. It offers a surface intelligibility combined with an apparent amenability to straightforward policy interventions. At the same time it is quite unclear, apart from the taking of risks, what attributes and behaviours are actually involved in enterprise. Even the relevance of risk is questionable. Despite the ideological pressure to demonstrate a link between entrepreneurship and risk, none of the relevant research has succeeded in doing so. Nor has risk been a prevalent feature of new venture creation in general and science-based start-ups in particular. The policy is an act of faith, based neither on research nor on experience. Its reliance on enterprise is less a solution than a hope that one will spontaneously appear.     

Citizen's adoption intention toward contact tracing apps: An analysis using innovation resistance theory

This study explores the factors that prevent citizens from using contact tracing apps (CTA). It uses the innovation resistance theory to construct a parsimonious data analysis model. Data are collected from 440 users of CTA, and an analysis using structural equation modeling is done. Moderation analysis is performed to measure the influence of trust on the relationship between independent and dependent variables. The results reveal that privacy concerns, functional complexity, and benefit ambiguity are the main factors causing hindrance in the adoption of CTAs. The study carries implications for public authorities and technology professionals for promoting and increasing the uptake of public-oriented mass-consumption technology.     

Corporate governance,property and democracy: a conceptual critique of shareholder ideology

Despite the resilience of national institutions and practices there are increasing signs that national systems of corporate governance are giving way to an idealized American model of shareholder activism and liquid equity markets. These pressures are ideologically backed by 'shareholderism', which consists of three claims: a prudential, a functional and a moral claim. The prudential one claims superior efficiency for shareholder control and market allocation of capital. The functional one bases its claim for shareholder control on the contribution of risk-carrying capital. The moral one is based on a liberal doctrine of ownership that grounds exclusive control rights in title-holders. This paper addresses the functional and moral claims. It argues that public equity markets do not contribute capital and that the Lockean conception of property is both untenable and morally reprehensible. Instead corporate democracy is proposed as a way to accommodate the conflicting claims of stakeholders. To do so an intelligent division of democratic labour is required. The paper ends with a sketch of such a model, through short outings to the real world of Dutch corporate governance.